Hi,
I hope you can help!
I will try and keep this as brief as possible but it is a bit of a complicated situation.
I work full time for a charity in Glasgow and have done so for twelve years, next month. I
am a Senior Manager and recently, as a result of the financial position many of us have found ourselves in, we have had to take a close look at our financial position and cut our cloth accordingly. This has resulted in a proposed change to terms and conditions - The sickness policy has had the most dramatic changes with serious implications on the staff; it should be noted however that our current position in terms of sickness and absence is wholly unsustainable.
The crux of the matter is this - Currently when a member of staff has gone off sick they have been paid 100% of there wages. This has gone on for a number of years now and been applied to everyone. For example when I have suffered a relapse that made it impossible for me to work for nearly two months I was fully paid, also I was off for a long period with depression (MS related I’m sure) I was fully paid. Now the suggestion is that staff employed for more than five years will annually be allowed four weeks full pay and four weeks half pay on a rolling basis.
The business side of me says this is reasonable as we need to be able to ensure the long term stability of the organisation - THe MS side of me says that in reality, if my pattern of sickness is maintained, I will be off work for more than this and we can’t survive on Statutory Sick Pay. I am only 37 and have two young children, a wife and a mortgage! I’m sure you have heard it all before…
My huge dilema is that I was involved in the writing the contract - I made my objections known to the proposed sickness policy but the majority voted in favour. The proposal is to have a disability policy in place which aligns with the minimum requirements as laid down in statute.
Essentially, this means if I go off it will be on SSP and that means we will lose our house
What do I do now?
I really hope you can help me with this!
Take Care all
G